The invention relates to an elastic bearing for rails. More particularly, it relates to an elastic rail bearing for railroad type rails, capable of being variably adjusted to a specified counteracting prestress and resonant frequency.
Different designs for elastic bearings for railroad rails are known in the art. These elastic rail bearings serve to reduce the noise generated by railroad vehicles and also to reduce the level of noise transmitted into the ground. Furthermore, such elastic bearings protect the rail bed substrate, as well as the wheel sets of the railroad vehicles. This is especially important for bridges and tunnels and other man-made railroad substrates. Also, such an elastic bearing can be successfully used for reducing railroad noise in residential areas.
A particularly advantageous design is described in German Patent DE OS No. 33 41 681. A bearing of this known type, owing to the fact that it is capable of variable prestress adjustment, can be adjusted to different resonant frequencies. This adjustment permits a reduction of the noise and sound conducted through solids within the frequency ranges that are particularly troublesome. However, this known bearing is basically limited to defined wheel set loads and defined speed ranges. This means that different bearing designs are required for different railborne vehicles such as streetcars and railway vehicles. Also this known rail bearing has a space requirement which may be relatively high, and it may have a design height that poses problems in special cases.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an elastic rail bearing having a compact structure, and which may be easily adjusted to different requirements.
It is also an object of the invention to provide such an elastic rail bearing which can be manufactured with low material costs.